El-Heis S, et al. - In this cohort study, researchers examined fetal and infant growth in relation to atopic eczema in infants. In the UK Southampton Women’s Survey, 1,759 infants with known maternal menstrual data had anthropometric measurements at 11, 19, and 34 weeks of gestation, birth and ages 6 and 12 months, allowing derivation of growth velocity SD scores. Using modified UK Working Party diagnostic criteria, infantile atopic eczema at ages 6 and/or 12 months was ascertained. Expressed per SD increase, higher femoral length and abdominal circumference were correlated with lower risk of atopic eczema at 34 weeks gestation, while each SD increase in head to abdominal circumference was related to an increase in the risk of atopic eczema. They observed that infants with atopic eczema show altered patterns of fetal growth, including faltering of linear growth in utero, before the clinical onset of atopic eczema. Growth falters prior to the commencement of clinical atopic eczema and its treatment was suggested in this analysis.